Pam Ayres on Gardening
By Shirleypoppy
18 comments
I switched on BBC Radio 7 purely by chance while in the kitchen this morning, and was rewarded with this:
Quiet please! Kindly don’t impede my concentration
I am sitting in the garden thinking thoughts of propagation
Of sowing and of nurturing the fruits my work will bear
And the place won’t know what’s hit it
Once I get up from my chair.
I’m at the planning stages now, if you should need to ask
And if I’m looking weary, it’s the rigours of the task
While the creation of a garden is a strain, as you can guess
So if my eyes should close, it isn’t sleep of course, it’s stress.
Oh, the mower I will cherish, and the tools I will oil
The dark, nutritious compost I will stroke into the soil
My sacrifice, devotion and heroic aftercare
Will leave you green with envy
Once I get up from my chair.
I’ve got lots of leeks to dibble and my runner beans to stake
And I want everything hung up – the garden hoe, the garden rake
I’ll disinfect the green house, when I’ve finished in the shed
Then, beside my faded roses, I will snip off every head.
I will excavate the bindweed, treat the moss upon the lawn
That hairy bittercress will curse the day that it was born
I will rise against the foe, and in the fight we will be matched
And the cabbage caterpillars they will curse the day they hatched.
Oh the branches I will layer and the cuttings I will take
Let other fellows dig a pond, I shall dig a LAKE
My garden – what a showpiece!
There’ll be pilgrims come to stare
And I’ll bow and take the credit
Once I get up from my chair.
Pam Ayres (from Ayres on the Air)
27 Nov, 2009
8 likes
Previous post: The Isles of Scilly and Tresco Abbey Garden (Part 1)
Next post: Garden ramblings ..... Autumn 2020
Comments
brilliant!
27 Nov, 2009
That was lovely
27 Nov, 2009
She still writes good stuff doesn't she?
27 Nov, 2009
Lol...that really made me laugh :)) Thank you Shirleypoppy x
27 Nov, 2009
absolutely brill.
27 Nov, 2009
I can envisage her reciting this.....lovely!!
27 Nov, 2009
Very good.
27 Nov, 2009
Lovely. I enjoyed that :o)
28 Nov, 2009
This time of year, I can see her in a comfy armchair with a cup of tea. Come summer, it must be a deck chair and a Pimms!
28 Nov, 2009
Always adored her poetry! Particularly:
My mother had a Flit gun.
It was not devoid of charm.
A bit of Flit shot out of it ......
and the rest went up her arm!
30 Nov, 2009
lol - that reminds me of my mother's old flit gun :o))
30 Nov, 2009
Oh, don't start me off! Do you remember stirrup pumps? My dad had a brass barreled one in the greenhouse for spraying whitefly - probably would be on Antiques Roadshow now, and worth a fortune.
30 Nov, 2009
I bet lots of stuff has been thrown away that would be valuable now. We didn't think anything of them then.
30 Nov, 2009
Was I the only one to read this in her accent???? Still makes me laugh - should be on the tele more.
1 Dec, 2009
I read it in her accent aswell lol - Well I can't do accents really but as I read it I could hear her saying it with me.
1 Dec, 2009
I always read her poetry with her accent - as I've been doing ever since I first saw/heard her on TV too many years ago. Lovely lady!
2 Dec, 2009
do you remember the one that started "I should have looked after me teeth"LOL :-)
2 Dec, 2009
Featured on
Recent posts by Shirleypoppy
- Spring is just around the corner ........
4 Feb, 2021
- Looking back to Lockdown#1 from Lockdown#2
16 Nov, 2020
- Garden ramblings ..... Autumn 2020
21 Oct, 2020
- The Isles of Scilly and Tresco Abbey Garden (Part 1)
17 Sep, 2009
- Opium poppies (beware what you wish for!)
10 Aug, 2009
- Hampton Court in the rain....
9 Jul, 2009
Members who like this blog
-
Gardening with friends since
29 Mar, 2008 -
Gardening with friends since
9 Aug, 2009 -
Gardening with friends since
16 Feb, 2008 -
Gardening with friends since
2 Nov, 2009 -
Gardening with friends since
16 Jul, 2009 -
Gardening with friends since
4 Jul, 2008 -
Gardening with friends since
9 May, 2007
She's very good isn't she? But thats only us in winter surely!
27 Nov, 2009